/kids-crafts/glowing-tea-light-olympic-torch/ on this server. Your technical support key is: 340c-9795-1756-6707Making Homemade Flashlights for the Get Moving! As part of our Juniors’ Get Moving Journey, we learned how electricity and circuits worked. We had a dad who was into circuitry who taught our girls about circuits and electricity, then led them in building their own flashlights from recycled materials. (Unfortunately, we found a few errors in the original document found on the destember website, so I’m listing the full adapted directions below.) This project will likely take about 60-75 minutes to complete, depending on the size of the group. 1 Empty toilet paper roll 1 Paper or plastic cup – 3 oz. 2 D-cell batteries (Hint: Save your troop money and buy larger packages of batteries. This 12-Pack of batteries is just over $1 per battery and is Prime eligible! .) 3  pieces of insulated wire, 4- to 5-inches long, with 1/2 inch of the ends stripped off.

(We stripped one end of each for time purposes but let the girls try stripping the rest of the wire on their own.)Tesco Direct Wood Blinds Wire cutters/strippers (recommend more than one pair if you have more than 5-6 girls)Automatic Vertical Blind Sewing Machine Need any of these supplies? Baby Bath Tub Ring WalmartClick here to shop. Take the 2 D-cell batteries and tape them end to end using electrical tape. Make sure the negative terminal of one battery is taped to the positive terminal of the second battery. Poke two holes in the side of the cardboard tube about one and one half inch apart. Stick one brad through each hole. Place a paper clip securely under the top of one of the brads. Press the brad firmly against the cardboard tube.

Cut the tube so that it can unroll. Wrap one wire around each brad, and then press the brads open to secure the wires in place. Place the two batteries inside the cardboard tube. Tape the loose end of one of the wires to the negative terminal of the batteries. Roll the cardboard together to remake the tube. Tape the tube together. The loose end of the second wire should stick out of the end of the tube where the positive terminal of the battery is located. Wrap the stripped end of the wire around the base of the light bulb. Tape it in place using a narrow strip of electrical tape Cut out a circle from a piece of cardboard that fits over the end of the flash light. This is the light bulb holder. Heavy cardboard will help secure the light bulb in place. Poke a hole through the middle of the light bulb holder large enough to stick the bulb through. Stick the light bulb through the hole. Press the light bulb holder firmly onto the flashlight so that the bottom of the light bulb makes contact with the positive terminal.

Tape the light bulb holder to the flashlight with strong tape. The bulb may move around a little, but will light if secured firmly in place. Take a paper cup and poke a hole in the bottom large enough to fit the light bulb through. Place the cup over the end of the flashlight to help direct the light. Tape the paper cup in place. Touch the paper clip to the second brad to test the flashlight. Adapt this: Our dad suggested we could use paper towel rolls and 3 D batteries for a stronger charge. Make your volunteer life easier! Register today for email updates and ideas from Use Resources Wisely. Note: This post does contain affiliate links, which help support our scouting adventures and this blog.Share this article for later:Like this:Conserve energy, disregard the use of batteries and battery operated machinery and opt towards change. Now you can start at this path by choosing the flashlight that will work on water. There are many harmful chemicals inside these environment-unfriendly batteries, which when disposed in open can leech out and pollute the soil or water that they come in contact with.

Pack your flashlight stash for those camping trips or for emergency situations when the power runs out, you can never be too prepared. This easy to make flashlight offers satisfactory performance with an alternate resource to derive its energy, with a galvanic cell which passes a galvanic current to make it work, it can work continuously for 30 minutes on tap water and for 2 hours with salt water. Here is what you will need Planning to go green this summer? Then the DIY flashlight that not only is easy to make but miraculously runs on water, is a perfect first project. Before you start you will need some basic things at hand, these are: 2N3904 General Purpose Transistor NPN 5 sheets of toilet paper 2 x 2” sheet of acetate Get started with the project First cut the strips of aluminum into tiny round traces. This will be your cathode for the homemade battery. You can also choose zinc to be the cathode too, but because of their easy availability and better chemical configuration aluminum is what most people chose to go for.

Using the just cut aluminum traces as guides cut tissue into tiny traces. You can also choose to cut these into wet wipes which are easier to manipulate and have higher tear strength than regular tissue paper or toilet paper. Now you need to stack two sheets of wet-wipes/ tissue traces over your coins and place a sheet of aluminum over these two tissue traces. Keep on repeating and stacking these one over the other till you do it to ten pennies. Glue the coins together to complete your galvanic cell. You can check the battery to be operating by connecting it to a voltmeter. Take the recycled torch and drill through its plastic to provide for entry and exit points for the fluid. Without an exit for the excess fluid the flashlight will short and not work. Place plastic dividers in between the enclosure to place the penny-battery. Place the home-made battery inside these plastic dividers and sprinkle salt over the cells. A galvanic cell works on fluid and ionic exchange.